The Fear in the Fugitive
by WritingxEqualsxHappiness
Summary: Many years later, Booth stumbles upon the perfect murder and must figure out why the world's best forensic anthropologist is on the run.
1. Chapter 1

**Reruns of Bones spark so many awesome ideas in my head. Here is cool idea number two. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><strong><span>The Fear in the Fugitive<span>**

**Chapter One**

The only thought running through Special Agent Seeley Booth's mind as he hiked up the steep hillside was that he wished he hadn't eaten that whole pie after dinner. By the time they reached the top of the hill and could see through the dense trees, that thought had morphed into one about needing to make a resolution to go on a diet. He stopped walking for a second to regain his balance as the land flattened out abruptly. His breathlessness caused him to double over and he had to lean on his knees for a while before he felt able to stand up straight again.

"Do you want me to go back down and bring up some water, sir?"

Booth glanced up from his feet at the woman standing in front of him bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Just give me a minute here, Shaw," he grumbled. "I'll be there in a minute." He searched around for somewhere to sit and found an overturned tree trunk. He ambled over to it and sat down heavily while his partner hurried to follow the trail guide, who looked entirely too old to be climbing hills, before he walked out of her sight.

Booth took a deep breath, felt satisfied with the minimal pain emanating from the stitch in his side, and stretched his legs before preparing to stand up. He definitely had to get on that diet. He had put on much more weight than he would have liked in the last ten years without Bones there to remind him to eat better.

Booth heaved himself to his feet and headed off to follow the path of bent plants that Shaw and the trail guide had left in their wake. The absence of crunching leaves was unsettling and he began to worry that he had followed the trail of a bear rather than people.

Then he stumbled into a break in the trees and found his partner crouched down next to a patch of grass that was not completely covered with brown leaves. The trail guide stood at the far side of the clearing, looking around the tops of the trees.

"What is that, a crop circle?" Booth asked.

"Perfect circles can only be formed either by nature or by using advanced math," Shaw said quietly. "Soil samples should be analyzed by the crime scene techs."

"What's your reasoning?" he asked curiously, glancing around at the treetops to see what the trail guide was looking at.

"The edges of those tree leaves are curled," she replied, which explained why the trail guide was staring up at them so intently. "Mr. Kosinski says the direction of curling suggests a fire was burning here recently. Also, there's a residue on the soil underneath the leaves bordering the circle." She stood up to look at Booth. "But I don't know how this circle was formed."

"There's no other evidence of a fire here," he pointed out. "What are we thinking this is? Murder? Drugs?"

"Murder." Booth and Shaw glanced over at the trail guide who had spoken for the first time since uttering his name before the hike up the hill.

"You got any proof of that?"

"Feels like it," Mr. Kosinski said vaguely.

"Oh-kay. Go ahead and call in CSU, have them sweep this place from top to bottom," Booth said. "If there was a murder here, I wanna know about it. I'm gonna go wait in the car... show people where to go." He turned and walked away in the general direction of where they had left the SUV. On the way past the fallen tree he had rested on earlier, a glint from beneath the trunk caught his eye and he crouched down next to it, his knees popping in protest. He twitched aside a few dead leaves to reveal a tiny silver charm shaped like a dolphin. He stared at it for a few seconds, trying to make the foggy memories in his brain clear enough to interpret. He was reminded of a time when his life seemed happier. He covered the charm with the leaves and sat on top of the tree trunk. He thought again about his diet, and then he thought of Bones and her healthy food that he should try eating.

That was the memory. Bones and the silver dolphin charm from her mother. Shaw had said something about advanced math. Bones knew very advanced math. She could make a perfect circle. She could also execute the perfect murder.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2! Please disregard any time periods I might have mentioned in the first chapter. A long time has passed and Booth is old and that's all that matters. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Chapter Two<p>

Booth did not think he would sleep very well that night. By the time the FBI's crime scene technicians had finally made it to the clearing, after getting lost twice of course, it was past dinnertime and Booth had left to eat at the diner. While he ate his pie, wishing the waitress would stop giving him disapproving looks and just hit him over the head with the pie plate and be done with it already, he got a call from Shaw telling him CSU was finished and the two of them would start investigating tomorrow morning.

A sense of pride came over him whenever he received an order from his partner. He had taken this agent at the start of her career with the FBI and transformed that nervous young follower into a confident leader. He himself was nearing the end of extended burnout and Shaw was ready in his eyes to take his place. It felt good to know that he was leaving his job in capable hands.

Speaking of capable hands, Booth thought that he really ought to call Bones and see how she was doing. It would also put his mind at ease, because the words perfect and murder kept bouncing around his head at it was starting to make him crazy. If Bones was okay, he would know that he just had to contend with a wacko's crazy murder and not Bones' crazy murder.

He had been with the Bureau long enough to know that he shouldn't assume a murder took place in that clearing since there was no evidence of that happening. But at the same time he also knew that if someone was indeed murdered there, which his large gut was telling him was true, they were wasting valuable time assuming it was just a circle. He did trust Shaw's judgment, though, and thought it might be time to let her make her own mistakes. Hopefully this mistake wouldn't cost someone their life.

Booth had finished his slice of pie while contemplating the circle and stood up to leave after leaving a healthy tip with the bill to thank the waitress for not hitting him with any pie plates just yet. He thought it might be a good time to start some exercise even if he didn't give up his pie, so he decided to walk back to his apartment rather than take a cab. Before he made it off the block the diner was on, his phone started to ring and Parker's picture popped up on the screen.

"Hey Park," he answered.

"Hi Dad," he said quickly. "Look, I have a problem."

"Don't even tell me you're not graduating on time," Booth told him, readying himself to pummel his son. How many times had he told him that his education always comes first? He only had a couple of weeks left before he would be graduating from Boston University.

"No, it's not that. Um, I sort of have something to tell you." Booth heard the hesitation in his son's voice that this something was a bad something.

"Did you get Nora pregnant?" The line crackled. "Parker? Did you?" More silence. "Jesus, Parker, answer me."

"It was an accident," he said finally. Booth's pie-filled stomach sank into the sidewalk and then he stepped on it.

"Shit. Parker..." He had so much to say and not the heart to say it. "Is Nora okay?"

"She's a little scared," Parker replied. "Dad, I don't know what to do."

"And I can't tell you what you should do," Booth told him honestly.

"But you've been through this," he begged.

"It depends on the people, kid. If Nora was like your mother, I'd say you better get ready to share for the rest of your life. Speaking of sharing and your mother, did you tell her yet?" Booth turned a corner and sidestepped a homeless man. He could see the top of his apartment building a few blocks away.

"She's gonna be so disappointed," Parker mumbled and Booth could barely make out what he said.

"Yeah, she probably will," Booth agreed. "But she doesn't have to be. If you're responsible about this, which I hope you will be, then I should be telling you congratulations."

"I think I should ask her to marry me," Parker said.

"Whoa, let's not go making any irrational decisions here," Booth protested. "Responsible does not equal marriage."

"I was already going to ask her to marry me. I bought the ring a few weeks ago."

"Oh," Booth said, hiding his disappointment that he had not talked to his son about this or helped him plan. "Well in that case..." He entered his apartment building and climbed the stairs to the third floor.

"You don't think she'll think I'm only asking her because I got her pregnant, do you?" Parker asked worriedly.

"The only way you'll know is if you ask her," Booth said. He unlocked the door and stepped inside, turning the lights on while he kicked his shoes off and loosened his tie with one hand. "But listen, Parker, marriage is a big step. You're asking Nora to spend the rest of her life with you. You have to think of her more than you when you decide this."

"I know," Parker said. "Oh, she's home now. I gotta go."

"Alright, let me know how everything goes," Booth said and then he hung up and sighed heavily. He removed his jacket and went to lie down on the couch to wonder where he went wrong to have his son getting his girlfriend pregnant. Sure, Parker was twenty-one years old and about to graduate college, but Booth had stressed the importance of marriage before kids until he was blue in the face. Booth hoped that he would at least have better luck than his own with proposing.

He stared at the ceiling for a while and then closed his eyes so he didn't have to stare at cobwebs anymore. His phone rang again and he brought it to his ear without opening his eyes.

"Booth."

"I know I said we would wait until tomorrow morning to start the investigation," Shaw began, "but CSU found traces of human skin in the substance under the leaves around the circle. They can't get DNA from any of it, but the leaves and soil say a fire was burning there within the last five hours. If we're lucky, the suspect could still be in the area." Booth sat up and went searching for his keys.

"I'll be there in a few minutes."

Good, he thought, something productive to do.


End file.
